This splendid self-portrait, considered one of the most beautiful ever painted by Ligabue, is actually a diary page of a personal story played out on the thread of feelings and emotions.
The psychological character that Ligabue shows himself is the true protagonist of the work. In the radiance and clarity of the setting, he manifests a subtle disquiet, a vague trembling of uncertain suspicion, of cautious and distrustful suspension.
Self-portrait (1959/1960) by Antonio LigabueFondazione & Archivio Antonio Ligabue di Parma
From the wound on his temple, a sign of the self-mutilation that Ligabue often inflicted on himself, only a trickle of dark blood, now congealed, flows.
The ear seems strained as if to listen to the inaudible.
The sparse and disheveled hair mixes the incipient whiteness with the blackness of youth.
The cheeks are sunken, in the beard, badly shaved, the white hairs are mixed with those still black.
The nose, like the eagle's beak, is hooky and arrogant. The mouth, with the drooping lip under the brush moustache, is dirty with chewed tobacco.
The face appears dazed, the eyes, in the three-quarter pose, seem to make the most effort to see from the side, traversed by a thousand emotions and nuances.
The pose is the recurring one in many self-portraits, the location is central to the canvas. In the background, a flowery meadow and, in the distance, a series of buildings that recall the Swiss rural world.
Self-portrait (1959/1960) by Antonio LigabueFondazione & Archivio Antonio Ligabue di Parma
The background, all resolved with color, has the value of a barely hinted fifth, if not random. It acquires a character of simplified repetition, habitual environmental appeal.
Attention must be paid to one's own portrait, strengthened by graphic and design elements which have the function of making the physiognomic elements more realistic, the features more incisive, always with balance and without expressionistic forcing.
